1. The "East v West" war where morons cannot see the struggle through anything other than a shallow Capitalism v Communism lens. No matter what, the possibility of ceding "strategic" ground to the other side must be stopped, at the cost of millions of lives dying in the most savage way possible.

The "East v West" paranoia is exploited by the MIC for profit, and also by the leaders inside the proxy states to get money from Washington..."You must help us defeat communism, ignore the drug dealing, extortion rackets and arms trafficking I do with the weapons you give us...that's just my side hustle..."

Throw in a little (or a lot) racism, mix and stirred by opportunists.

2. The "North v South" wars which are really wars of National Liberation from Colonial Powers. These are wars of legitimacy and agency for a people to resist their slavers.

Vietnam was such a war of National Liberation, but internal factions exploited the E v W duality for their own ends, with predictable tragic results. Uncle Ho for military aid, Diem for the same. Both cost millions of lives.

Only Ghandhi had the right means to do it. Peaceful resistance and time. No colonial power can resist tens of millions of people in a foreign land forever.

Now we fight in Iraq for Oil. Yes, ISIS is fighting for Oil, despite their own propaganda and ours.

Now we fight in Afghanistan for Minerals (est $2-3 Trillion in Strategic Metals in the ground there). While the Afghans fight a war of National Liberation.

Guess who will win?

Hint: A couple of hundred thousands troops cannot defeat 35 Million Afghans regardless of firepower. All they have to do is keep having babies and wait.

Shot I took in '72 of our six inch mount firing from a 1/4 mile offshore of Quảng Trị. Spent that year doing 6 hours-on / 6 hours-off shifts, 24x7 in the five inch mount just above it in the lower left of the picture.

...The "East v West" paranoia is exploited by the MIC for profit, and also by the leaders inside the proxy states to get money from Washington..."You must help us defeat communism, ignore the drug dealing and arms trafficking I do with the weapons you give us....".....

Drug supply and dealing is encouraged and facilitated directly by our MIC and their employees, errrr.. politicians. Right now there are US Marines stationed guarding poppy fields in Afghanistan. I've worked with two of them.

You've gone partway down the rabbithole Tut... keep going. It gets much darker.

The only way to "win" in Afghanistan is a Genocide killing 95% of the indigenous inhabitants, putting the rest on the most worthless land (ie reservations) and moving Americans there forever... but in a hundred years the Colonists will kick us out in their own struggle for National Liberation (read: personal profit).

Just like we did in North America.

But I don't know any Americans that want to live in Afghanistan...weird.

Which means, we have already lost but thousands and thousands more will die to feed the MIC for profit.

1. The "East v West" war where morons cannot see the struggle through anything other than a shallow Capitalism v Communism lens. No matter what, the possibility of ceding "strategic" ground to the other side must be stopped, at the cost of millions of lives dying in the most savage way possible.

The "East v West" paranoia is exploited by the MIC for profit, and also by the leaders inside the proxy states to get money from Washington..."You must help us defeat communism, ignore the drug dealing, extortion rackets and arms trafficking I do with the weapons you give us...that's just my side hustle..."

Throw in a little (or a lot) racism, mix and stirred by opportunists.

2. The "North v South" wars which are really wars of National Liberation from Colonial Powers. These are wars of legitimacy and agency for a people to resist their slavers.

Vietnam was such a war of National Liberation, but internal factions exploited the E v W duality for their own ends, with predictable tragic results. Uncle Ho for military aid, Diem for the same. Both cost millions of lives.

Only Ghandhi had the right means to do it. Peaceful resistance and time. No colonial power can resist tens of millions of people in a foreign land forever.

Now we fight in Iraq for Oil. Yes, ISIS is fighting for Oil, despite their own propaganda and ours.

Now we fight in Afghanistan for Minerals (est $2-3 Trillion in Strategic Metals in the ground there). While the Afghans fight a war of National Liberation.

Guess who will win?

Hint: A couple of hundred thousands troops cannot defeat 35 Million Afghans regardless of firepower. All they have to do is keep having babies and wait.

tuolumne_tradster:
The Khmer Rouge, previously a marginalized guerrilla group, propagandized the bombing campaign to great effect; by the CIA's own intelligence estimates, the US bombing campaign was a key factor in the increase in popular support for the Khmer Rouge rebels. After their victory in 1975, the Khmer Rouge oversaw a period in which another one-to-two million Cambodians died from execution, hunger and forced labour.

Thank you tuolumne_tradster, I did not know about this link between US bombing of Cambodia and Khmer Rouge taking power.

Kissinger relayed these orders to his military assistant, Gen. Alexander Haig: “He wants a massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. He doesn’t want to hear anything. It’s an order, it’s to be done. Anything that flies on anything that moves.”

Khmer insurgent (KI) [Khmer Rouge] cadre have begun an intensified proselyting campaign among ethnic Cambodian residents . . . in an effort to recruit young men and women for KI military organizations. They are using damage caused by B-52 strikes as the main theme of their propaganda.

Note that both Nixon and Carter administrations supported the Khmer Rouge...

In November 1975 — seven months after KR forces seized control of Phnom Penh — Henry Kissinger said to Thailand’s foreign minister that he “should tell [the KR] that we bear no hostility towards them. We would like them to be independent as a counterweight to North Vietnam.” Kissinger added that he “should also tell the Cambodians that we will be friends with them. They are murderous thugs, but we won’t let that stand in our way. We are prepared to improve relations with them.”

As the New York Times reported, “the Carter administration helped arrange continued Chinese aid” to the KR guerillas. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor, explained that he “encourage[d] the Chinese to support Pol Pot.”

Finally in January 1979 the Vietnamese army, largely backed by the former Soviet Union, expelled Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge from Phnom Penh. Despite this, the Khmer Rouge retained their seat in the UN until 1982.

In 1965, Ali failed the military’s mental aptitude screening test and was disqualified for the draft.
But as the war dragged on, the Army lowered testing standards and Ali was reclassified as qualified.